'It changed my life tremendously': Kidney donor, recipient to meet for first time at MLB game
A Wisconsin woman, who donated a kidney to save a California man's life, is going to meet him this weekend at a Milwaukee Brewers game.
Hope and patience are what Booker Williams kept in his back pocket as he awaited a kidney donor.
"I wouldn't be here today to share my story, so donation is very big on any level," Williams said.
Booker comes from a family with a history of polycystic kidney disease, or PKD, which causes cystic growth that can lead to kidney failure.
Williams was in stage three in 2014 and started looking for a donor.
"I was very fatigued. I really couldn't move. My sense of smell went up, so if something didn't smell good or was too strong, I would vomit," Williams said.
Two thousand miles away in Shawano County, Wisconsin, Lisa Sorlie found out she was the perfect match.
"I didn't know him. What I did know is that I was a really good match for somebody," Sorlie said. "The reason why I was a good match — and no girl ever wants to hear this — is because I'm a big person. I'm over 6 feet tall, and my kidney was big. And size does matter."
The surgery was a success.
"The surgery was hard. I did not feel good for a while. They don't sugar coat that. You know it's going to happen, but there's a lot of things in life where I don't feel good for a while and nothing has been as rewarding as this," Sorlie said.
"It changed my life tremendously because Lisa giving me a kidney, that's like a guardian angel," Williams said.
Sorlie is a Brewers fan, and Williams is a Dodgers fan, so they will be at American Family Field to watch their teams play each other on Sunday.